Waterlogged
by PariZade
Summary: When Dipper helps a strange girl out of the lake, he ends up seeing her more than he'd like. Not a romance, annnd the first chapter is badly written, so just live through that chapter and the rest should be good.
1. Stuck in the Mud

Waterlogged

**I'm posting this from my iPod, so if Ifind that the spacing is messed up, I'm gonna have to recall the danged thing and try again later.**

It was another typical day in the Mystery Shack. Gruntled Stan was conning some sucker tourist, Mabel was obsessing over her "dream boy" of the week, and Dipper was sent out to do some meaningless chore.

Today's chore was to put up poster ads on the trees by the Lake. Stan stated that tourists loved to go to the lake, so putting up advertisements here was a good idea. As if. Stan just wanted Dipper to go do more manual labor.

Grumbling, he started to put up the signs when he heard someone call out.

"Hey! You there!"

He looked around for a moment. He didn't see anyone out here at this point in the morning. "Must've lost more sleep than I thought," he mumbled. Soon the voice called again, only louder.

"HEYYYY! Are you DEAF? Kid with the blue vest! Can ya help me out over here?"

Dipper turned to look again. This time, he saw a young girl standing in the water just by the shore, in up a bit past her ankles. Weird. He hadn't seen her a moment ago. Leaving the posters and stapler by a tree, he walked over to the girl.

At a closer look, the girl appeared to be about Dipper's age, if not a bit younger. She had sea green-tinted blond hair that was put into two long pigtails. Her bright green eyes glared up at him.

"Great, it only took, what, twelve tries to get your attention? Whatever. I need your help." She gestured to her feet. Which couldn't be seen under the murky water. "I...uh...got my feet stuck in the mud, and I can't get them out. Can you pull me out?"

Dipper just stared for a moment, then shrugged again. "Okay, fine."

Placing his noodle arms under the girl's arms, he yanked her up as hard as he could. Immediately, the girl was pulled out of the lake with little resistance. The momentum that Dipper had used to pull was too much, and he fell backwards, causing the blond girl to land on top of him.

She automatically rolled off of him before the awkward could really set in. "Yeesh, didja really think I was that heavy? That I needed that much of a pull? Eh, whatever." Her eyes glistened for a moment with an odd expression that Dipper couldn't read. She looked around at her surroundings and mumbled something under her breath before shouting "See ya!" as she ran off.

Dipper just stared off in the direction that the direction that the weird girl ran. Walking back to the posters, he hoped that he hadn't just done something utterly idiotic


	2. More Where That Came From

Waterlogged II

Dipper didn't finish hanging up the signs until the sun was just dipping below the horizon, and then it took until the sun disappeared to finally get back to the Mystery Shack. He cringed at the new cuts and splinters on his hands.

No sooner had he walked through the doorway when he was tackled by a bedazzled girl and her equally bedazzled pig.

"Dipper! Guess what Waddles and I did!"

"Mabel, didn't you learn last time that pasting gems to your face is a bad-"

"No."

"But-"

"Shh!" Mabel put a finger to Dipper's lips, ceasing the Dipper logic that interfered with the Mabel way.

Rolling his eyes, Dipper left the girl and her pig to their shenanigans and climbed up the stairs. When he arrived to his room, he sat on his bed and took out Journal #3. He needed to find out about a creature he had seen earlier that day.

Just as he started to look through the pages, the sounds of two people arguing could be heard below. Grunkle Stan's voice could be recognized clearly, while the other one was harder to identify, though it sounded familiar. Curious, Dipper headed downstairs and approached the main store area. He had reached the back of the "Staff Only" door and started to open it when he started to hear the voices more clearly.

"... but I'd only stay for a few-"

"No can do, kid. This is a tourist shop, not a motel!"

Peeking through the door's opening, Dipper saw Stan arguing with a girl at the doorway, whom he recognized as the girl that had been stuck in the mud. His eyes widened a bit. What was she doing at the Mystery Shack after hours?

Listening to the conflict, Dipper pieced together what was happening. Apparently, the girl needed a place to stay. Some locals had pointed her to the Mystery Shack, since Stan had taken in two other kids about her age not too long ago, but the conman was in no way willing to invite in another mouth to feed.

Eventually, Stan grabbed the edge of the door, ready to slam it in her face, when the girl grabbed her bag and pulled out a small, shiny object. Holding it up, she said, "Will this do?"

Stan gawked at what was in her hand. Whatever it was, it held some importance to the conman. He picked it up slowly and looked closely at it. "I-is this-?"

"Mm-hmm, and there's more where that came from, so long as you let me stay here for a bit."

There was a silence. The girl had a smug grin on her face as Grunkle Stan turned around and shouted, "DIPPER! Get down here and help this kid bring her stuff upstairs! She's gonna stay here for a few days!"

Dipper sighed and waited a few moments before opening the door (didn't want them to know he had been spying). When he and the girl made eye contact, her eyebrows went up a little in surprise.

"So," she started, "you're name's Dipper, huh?" She walked up and threw her bag to him. He wasn't prepared for the weight and he stumbled back a bit. The girl laughed. "I'm Plover. The guy said upstairs, right?"

As Plover started in the direction of the stairs, Dipper glanced back at his great uncle, who was on his way to sell the decent-sized nugget of pure gold in his hand.


	3. A Better Name

(I didn't think anyone would be interested in this story, so I'm surprised at the current reaction so far. I hope I don't disappoint anyone with a bad chapter!

This chapter is generally Plover being a jerk to Dippingsauce, so don't expect too much.)

There must be a ton of gold nuggets in this bag.

Dipper was gasping for air as he finally got Plover's bag up the stairs. When he reached the bedroom, he collapsed onto his back.

"Took ya long enough, Dipper."

The boy opened his eyes to see Plover grinning down at him. She was wearing a huge dark brown overcoat that was obviously buttoned up wrong. hidden underneath it was something shiny and blue, but he couldn't make put much more.

She took the bag from him with much ease. When he sat up and watched her open it, he saw that there were in fact many more of those gold nuggets scattered among the other things she had in there.

"How did... you get all that... gold?" He gasped between breaths.

Plover looked at him for a moment, like she was deciding whether or not to answer. After a moment, she turned back to the bag and replied simply, "We have lots of these where I come from. They're not as rare and valuable there as they are here."

Dipper just stared at the back of her head. Now was the time to figure out what was with this girl. "And where did you come fro-"

"Y'know, Dipper," she interrupted, changing the subject, "your name is kinda weird. Don't you have a better nickname to be called by?" She looked him over, taking in details like his blue vest and a tiny glimpse of something on his forehead (he hid it pretty well, so it must be embarrassing). Her eyes trailed up until they locked onto his hat. It had a symbol of some sort of tree on the front.

What was that tree called again? Plover had to think it over for a moment before she clapped her hands together in realization, startling the boy out of his daze. "How about I call you Pine Tree?"

Dipper visibly cringed at the name. That was what the town's local dream demon called him. That floating Dorito had done enough damage as is, and he didn't want to be reminded of him for however many days this girl was staying. "N-no, not that name." He shook his head. "Definitely a no."

"Well," Plover smirked a bit at how awkward the boy was getting. "I don't know what else to call you. I'm not gonna call you Dipper..." She pretended to think for a moment, then a mischievous grin spread across her face.

"Maybe I can call you by whatever you have hiding under here..." She started to reach for Dipper's hat, causing him to recoil and scoot back until he almost fell backwards down the stairs. "UH NO YOU CAN'T DO THAT EITHER." Dipper grabbed his hat.

Plover's grin stayed the same. "Any better ideas then?"

"Well, I always liked the name Tyrone..."

The girl thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Na, I like Pine Tree. Has a bit of a ring to it."

Dipper just stared at the girl. Suddenly he remembered that he had tried to ask her something that she had avoided entirely. "Where did you come from?" He stared her right in the eyes so she couldn't try to ignore the inquiry.

Plover held eye contact for a long time, wearing a serious expression, to the point where Dipper was starting to feel awkward staring at a girl's eyes for this long. Suddenly the mischievous smirk returned.

"I'm from where you found me."

(Aaaggh was that lame that was lame wasn't it agggghgh!

Eh I tried.)


End file.
